BCHS Graduation at UOP

Graduation for Bear Creek High School has normally been at the UOP football field. There has been plenty of room for thousands of people to watch the ceremony comfortably and virtually no complaints. Recently however, starting with the Class of 2012 and going on to the Class of 2013, graduation has now been at the Podesto Field at BC. There is no plan to move the venue of the graduation. Holding graduation there has posed some serious problems. Some of them being there not being enough room in the stands and the attendees having to overflow onto the sides. Also, weather was an issue during the Class of 2012's graduation when it rained for a short time. With this petition, we are trying to move the venue from the Podesto Field to the A.G. Spanos Center at UOP.

Schools like St.Mary's host their graduation at UOP as well and the place is gorgeous when set up for an event like this. The facility can expand to hold up to around 8000 people. If you do the math with a graduating class of around 400-420 students, each graduate can get upwards of 19 to 20 tickets to fill the center. A reasonable amount, however, is 13-16.

At the Podesto Field graduation, each graduating student receives 8 tickets. If you do the math for a class size of 400-420 again, that's around 3200-3360 people watching the graduation there. At both graduations that held their ceremony at the Podesto Field, there were literally hundreds of people who didn't have a seat. Some of those people who couldn't get a seat included disabled and handicapped individuals. A good estimate is that the stands at BC only hold around 3000. I hope to stop this problem with this petition.

Having 8 tickets really holds you back from properly celebrating your graduation. For most families, 8 tickets is just their household and maybe a couple more extended family members. I've heard countless stories of families who happened to have an extra ticket or two to sell their ticket to needy families for upwards of $50 per ticket. This is flat out unacceptable in my opinion and the opinion of larger families. From experience when my brother graduated in 2012, we were left with 2 tickets after distributing the tickets within just our house alone. It's never right to choose one grandparent/uncle/auntie/cousin/friend/sibling over another. With 13-16 tickets, this gets rid of the issue of having to choose one family member over the other on your big day.

If this petition is successful, this will benefit the Class of 2014 and beyond! Each graduate will be allowed more tickets and have more family there attending. An air conditioned facility that diminishes the need to worry about weather interruptions. And the venue is way more beautiful at the center and more formal.

People who are encouraged to sign this petition include: Current Seniors (2014), Parents/Family members of current Seniors, Parents and Students in classes below who will graduate in the coming years and want to benefit from this when it's their turn.

You can spread this link around on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. Please help me make graduation better this year and years to come! Thank you and God Bless.